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A descriptive sign with a picture of a Cheyenne Chief on it greets visitors of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Kiowa County near Eads on Nov. 28, 2012. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

Descendants of victims of the Sand Creek Massacre have filed a class-action lawsuit in Denver against the federal government, seeking reparations they claim were never paid for the slaughter of their Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestors 149 years ago.

Photos: Sand Creek Massacre

The complaint accuses the government and its agents of lawless behavior and hollow promises surrounding one of the darkest moments in Colorado history.

At dawn on Nov. 29, 1864, federal soldiers attacked peaceful Indians camped on the ice-encrusted banks of Sand Creek in what is now southeastern Colorado, slaughtering an estimated 163 — mostly women, children and the elderly — and desecrating their bodies.

The U.S. government in an 1865 treaty acknowledged wrongdoing and promised reparations of land and cash to survivors and relatives of victims.

The crux of the legal argument going forward will be whether the government ever paid that debt. Descendants claim it has not, while government officials have indicated they will argue otherwise.

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"It's been a long road, and we're ready to go," said Robert Simpson, a Methodist minister from Anadarko, Okla., and one of the plaintiffs. "We are focused on our ancestors. They are the ones who want us to do this. We will never forget them and what happened."

The trust says it has identified more than 15,000 descendants through decades of genealogical research and recruitment. A judge will decide whether the case meets requirements for class-action status.

A monument marker sits on an overlook that greets visitors of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site in Kiowa County near Eads on Nov. 28. 2012. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file)

Trust lawyers say either the federal government or the courts are responsible for establishing exactly who is a rightful descendant.

But the lawsuit does not seek to identify exactly how much is allegedly owed descendants — one of several open questions.

The lawsuit allows that it is very likely Congress appropriated some money in 1866 to reimburse bands of Cheyenne and Arapaho who suffered at Sand Creek.

But it alleges that only a portion was paid, the amount was insufficient, and it was given to tribes rather than individuals as spelled out in the Treaty of the Little Arkansas.

The Department of the Interior has since then controlled and held in trust reparations owed to the plaintiffs and their ancestors but has never accounted for it, the lawsuit claims.

"It's been a long road, and we're ready to
go. We are focused on our ancestors. They are the ones who want us to do this." Robert Simpson, a Methodist minister from Anadarko, Okla. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file)

Interior Department spokeswoman Jessica Kershaw said the department would not comment on pending litigation.

The reparations effort is the latest chapter in the struggle about the legacy of the Sand Creek Massacre, an important chapter in relations between white settlers and American Indians in the West.

At a time of high tension, about 700 soldiers under the command of Col. John Chivington attacked Indians led by "peace chiefs" who had been assured by the government they could safely camp there.

Witnesses described Indians on their knees begging for mercy and children clubbed in the head. When the killing was done, victims' body parts were taken as trophies and put on display in Denver.

The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site is in Kiowa County, near Eads, commemorating where more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were killed by militiamen in 1864. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file photo)

Previous efforts at reparations have stalled. Bills introduced in Congress in 1949, 1953, 1957 and 1965 all failed.

The cause has been influenced by divisions among descendants, as well. Some Cheyenne tribal traditionalists dismiss the trust leaders who filed the lawsuit as interlopers with no legitimate claim.

The trust's campaign for reparations stalled for years but was revived with a recently expanded legal team. One of its new lawyers, David Askman of Denver, helped open a dialogue with Interior Department officials about the reparations claim before filing the lawsuit.

Askman has said the department contends reparations have been paid, with a department official describing a ledger from the 1960s that purports to show payments to individuals.

But Askman said Thursday the government has only produced documents showing payments to tribes, not individuals.

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